Working in finance at F&P Stock Solution - anything but accounting!

30.10.2018

What does F&P Stock Solution GmbH stand for?

F&P Stock Solution stands for speed and professionalism in all departments. The wholesale of overstocks, customer returns and liquidation goods in the shoes and textile market requires a high degree of trust between customers and suppliers. For F&P, this means ensuring good collaboration between all departments, whether it's buying, selling, warehouse or accounting. For a quick and smooth transaction of all transactions an experienced team, flexibility and a good teamwork are necessary. Since the founding of F&P Stock Solution in 2013, the company has grown to currently around 50 employees, with an upward trend. F&P now consists of seven departments: Sales, Buying, Finance, Human Resources, Back Office and Warehouse. ("About us"). The two founders and managing directors, Julius Göllner and Ole Schneikart, have launched F&P with the idea of taking shoes and textiles to a second lifecycle. The topic of recycling and sustainable use of already produced but still usable goods is becoming more and more important for the consumers. Nevertheless, it is not easy to combine quality, price and performance, especially in the wholesale of overstocks, so that in the end everyone is satisfied. This succeeds only with a professional structure.

Have a look behind the scene of the finance division at F&P Stock Solution GmbH

The finance department has very extensive responsibilities that require cooperation with all departments at F&P. A normal day starts with reviewing account sales and tracking in our project management tool, so that sales managers and the warehouse know if customers can pick up their goods.

After this is done many more tasks are on the list that can differ every day. When purchasing the goods and services, we are in close contact with the Warehouse, Buying, Merchandise and Fashion Flash departments to determine whether all the invoices we have provided are correct in their content. The formal audit is the responsibility of the finance department itself. After the audit, we record all invoices in our accounting software and prepare the payment, which will be finally released by the CFO or the managing directors.

In addition to all purchases and acquisitions, we are also responsible for processing all outgoing invoices. As soon as a customer orders a product from one of the sales managers, we receive the corresponding request and create the corresponding invoices. After invoicing, we monitor the outstanding receivables and, via the project platform mentioned above, inform all involved whether the goods can be picked up.

The basic tasks require a very precise and stringent operation of the entire department, since this work later forms the basis for all further evaluations and analyses made for all business areas. In addition to the reporting and the analysis for all department heads, this also includes regular evaluations for the management in order to review the short-term goals and to define the next short- and medium-term goals. Apart from the internal benefit of the work, this is also the basis for various monthly reports to the German authorities, such as the sales tax return, which are all transmitted by the finance department itself.

In addition to these everyday tasks, the professional knowledge of accounting is also in demand again and again when developing new business ideas. Because sometimes processes are very easy to present from the point of view of sales. However, to capture them correctly in accounting and tax law usually requires more effort to provide all the necessary evidence for a proper bookkeeping. In summary, one can state that the finance department is the contact person for all matters involving monetary issues.